Naturally Challenged: Contested Perceptions and Practices in Urban Green Spaces (Cities and Nature)

This book aims to understand how the wellbeing benefits of urban green space (UGS) are analysed and valued and why they are interpreted and translated into action or inaction, into ‘success’ and/or ‘failure’. The provision, care and use of natural landscapes in urban settings (e.g. parks, woodland, nature reserves, riverbanks) are under-researched in academia and under-resourced in practice. Our growing knowledge of the benefits of natural urban spaces for wellbeing contrasts with asset management approaches in practice that view public green spaces as liabilities. Why is there a mismatch between what we know about urban green space and what we do in practice? What makes some UGS more ‘successful’ than others? And who decides on this measure of ‘success’ and how is this constituted? This book sets out to answer these and related questions by exploring a range of approaches to designing, planning and managing different natural landscapes in urban settings.

Dr Julian Dobson is director of the research consultancy Urban Pollinators, based inSheffield, UK. He was also a member of the IWUN team at the Department of Landscape Architecture at the University of Sheffield. He was previously founding editor of the community regeneration journal New Start.

His research interests focus on the development and care of equitable and environmentally sustainable places, and he is currently involved in a range of projects on urban green spaces and their management and governance.

Dr Dobson is author of How to Save our Town Centres (Policy Press) and co-editor of Urban Crisis, Urban Hope (Anthem, in press). Recent research articles have appeared in journals including Sustainability, Voluntary Sector Review, and Environmental Science and Policy.